Chelsea will go into Sunday's Community Shield against Manchester United having failed to beat top-flight opposition in their pre-season. Their latest blip came when Yuri Zhirkov gifted the Hamburg midfielder Mladen Petric an equaliser in the 72nd minute with a back pass of staggeringly ill-conceived proportions.

Hamburg duly completed what for long spells had looked an unlikely comeback when defensive uncertainty from Chelsea's central pairing of John Terry and the substitute Ricardo Carvalho saw Heung Min Son, another substitute, skip through to score the winning goal with only three minutes remaining. Frank Lampard had put Chelsea ahead after good work from Michael Essien.

The result did not overly concern Carlo Ancelotti, the Chelsea manager. His team had looked sharp for spells and their rhythm only started to fracture when the inevitable spate of second-half substitutions began.

But the Italian could be unhappy with the continuation of an irritating trend, following the defeats to Ajax and Eintracht Frankfurt, his team once again pockmarked their performance with defensive sloppiness.

"We are in a moment where we are making some mistakes and usually this team is more in focus," he said. "We are losing some concentration. In the past, the defence gives us a lot of confidence so I think we will get our concentration back. We have made mistakes so we have to show more character, we have to show more concentration.

"We are disappointed because it is not good to lose. We've lost three games consecutively and so it's not a good start for us. We hope that against United, we will come back to win. I hope that they have a good reaction to this defeat."

Terry, the captain, is among the players who have been culpable. He had been partly to blame for Eintracht's opening goal on Sunday and the challenge facing him is to pick up his levels. He was booked for a crunching late tackle on Hamburg's Paolo Guerrero.

There were errors from the goalkeepers Ross Turnbull and Henrique Hilário against Ajax and Eintracht respectively, although Turnbull, given the nod here, could do little about either of the Hamburg goals. Petr Cech, the No1, will not be fit for the Community Shield and Ancelotti has a decision to make over his starting goalkeeper.

Ancelotti had to hope that the lapses are linked to ring-rustiness. This was only the second match for his World Cup players, the majority of whom returned to training on Monday of last week. For Didier Drogba, the talismanic striker, who came on at half-time, it was his first action of the pre-season. Ancelotti admitted that his key players were some way short of peak fitness.

"After eight days of training, it is impossible to be fit," he said. "The players that came back on 26 July need to have another two weeks to work. There are some players in good condition and others who need to have more time to be fit. It is normal."

Ancelotti was asked whether it was a disadvantage that his leading players were still fighting for fitness. "It is not," he replied, "because if they are not fit, they still have good presence on the pitch.

''Lampard, Terry, they have a good presence so it is not important to be 100 per cent fit at the start of the season. They need to have more time playing. They will do better."

Chelsea are poised for a midfield reshuffle as Ramires, Benfica's Brazilian international, for whom they have agreed a €22 million fee, flew into London last night, ahead of his medical at the club. There is still paperwork to complete on his transfer.

Deco, meanwhile, has been allowed to return to Brazil to negotiate his transfer to Fluminese, although Chelsea do want a fee for him as they are releasing him from the final year of his contract.

Ancelotti substituted the defender Branislav Ivanovic, after he caught a flailing elbow in the face, but the measure was only precautionary.